Systems and methods for adaptive content distribution

ABSTRACT

An application displaying primary content, such as a webpage, may include unused space. The unused space may exist within the application displaying the primary content (e.g., within the browser window) or on other portions of the display (e.g., outside of the browser window). The unused space is identified and leveraged to display secondary content on the client display along with the primary content. The secondary content may be adaptable to conform to different sizes and/or configurations of the unused space. The secondary content may be updated as the user interacts with elements on the client display.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of, and claims priority to, U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/135,089, entitled, “Content DistributedSystem and Method,” filed Jun. 24, 2011 for Nikolai Mentchoukov et al.,and which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.61/358,790, entitled “Content Distribution System and Method,” filedJun. 25, 2010, and to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.61/435,740, entitled “Content Distribution System and Method,” filed onJan. 24, 2011, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in itsentirety.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

© 2010 Leftsnrights, Inc. A portion of the disclosure of this patentdocument contains material which is subject to copyright protection. Thecopyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyoneof the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in thePatent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwisereserves all copyright rights whatsoever per 37 CFR §1.71(d).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A-O depict exemplary client displays comprising identified,unused space;

FIG. 2A is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method for leveragingunused space on a client display;

FIG. 2B is a flow diagram of another embodiment of a method forleveraging unused space on a client display;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of another embodiment of a method forleveraging unused space on a client display;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a system for leveraging unused space on aclient display to display secondary content;

FIG. 5 depicts an exemplary interface for managing a tag record;

FIG. 6 depicts an exemplary interface for accessing a manager tag;

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of another embodiment of a method fordisplaying secondary content in unused space on a client display;

FIG. 8 depicts an exemplary interface for managing a placement record;

FIG. 9 depicts an exemplary interface for managing secondary content;

FIG. 10 depicts an exemplary interface for managing a placement queue;

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram of another embodiment of a method forleveraging unused space on a client display;

FIG. 12 is a flow diagram of a method for selecting a placement; and

FIGS. 13A-C depict exemplary adaptations of secondary content todifferent virtual board configurations.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Network accessible services, such as web servers, provide content toclient devices over a network (e.g., the Internet). The client devicesrender the content on a display using a client-side application, such asa web browser (e.g., Microsoft Internet Explorer®, Mozilla Firefox®,Google Chrome, or the like). The content is typically capable of beingrendered on a wide variety of different client devices, having differentdisplay and rending capabilities. Moreover, the display area in whichthe content is rendered may be dynamically sized. For example, a usermay change the position, size, and/or orientation of a browser window ona client display. Accordingly, when “primary” content is rendered in aclient display, the display area may include “unused space.” As usedherein, unused space refers to a portion of a display that is not beingused to display rendered “primary” content. As used herein, “content”refers to any form of renderable, content including, but not limited to,Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) content, eXtensible Markup Language(XML) content, Virtual Reality Markup Language (VRML) content, Flash®content, graphical content (e.g., images), video content, text content,or the like.

In some embodiments, the systems and methods disclosed herein leverageunused space on a client display to present secondary content. Thesecondary content may be displayed along with the primary content on theclient display. As used herein, secondary content refers to any contentthat can be presented on a client display including, but not limited to,text, images, video, audio, markup (e.g., HTML), interactive content(e.g., Flash®, ActionScript®, Java® Applet, etc.), or the like.Secondary content may be rendered on a client display before, after,and/or concurrently with rendering the primary content. In someembodiments, secondary content may be displayed in the absence ofprimary content (e.g., as shown in FIGS. 1F, 1G, and 1H describedbelow). Secondary content may be unrelated to the primary content.Accordingly, secondary content may be published and/or accessed from anentity other than the provider of the primary content (e.g., fromanother network-accessible service, web server, or the like).

FIG. 1A depicts an exemplary client display 100 displaying primarycontent 120 on a client device. As used herein, a client device mayinclude, but is not limited to, a personal computer, a portablecomputer, a laptop, a netbook, a tablet, a smart phone, a personaldigital assistant, or the like. Accordingly, the client display 100 maycorrespond to a monitor of a personal computer; the screen of a laptop,phone, or tablet; or the like.

In some embodiments, the client display 100 operates in a windowedenvironment, and the primary content 120 is displayed within a windowedclient application 110 (e.g., web browser application). Alternatively,the client application 110 and the client display 100 may beco-extensive. For example, the client application 110 may operate in a“full screen” mode in which the client application display area 112covers the entire client display 100, or the client display 100 may beconfigured to display a single application at a time as is typical withsmaller form-factor devices, such as smart phones, tablets, and thelike.

The client application 110 renders the primary content 120 in the clientapplication display area 112. The rendered primary content 120 may notutilize the full client application display area 112, leaving unusedspace 130 in the client application display area 112. In someembodiments, the unused space 130 is identified and/or represented by avirtual board 131 (placeholder). As used herein, a virtual board refersto a placeholder that represents identified unused space within theclient display 100, such as the unused space 130. The virtual board 131may indicate the position, size, proportions, and/or orientation of theunused space 130 within the client display 100.

In some embodiments, unused space may be identified outside of theclient application 110 or anywhere within the client display 100 (or inan external display). In FIG. 1B, the unused space 132 and correspondingvirtual board 133 extend beyond the client application display area 112into an unused portion of the client display 100. In the FIG. 1Cexample, the unused space 134 and corresponding virtual board 135 areentirely outside of the client application display area 112. Unusedspace may be identified “in-line” with primary content. The in-lineunused space may be identified when the primary content is rendered bythe client application 110. The FIG. 1D example shows unused space 136and a corresponding virtual board 137 in-line with primary content 120.

A client display may comprise any number of virtual boards, eachrepresenting a different identified portion of unused space. As shown inFIG. 1E, a client display 100 includes three unused spaces 134, 136, and138, each of which is represented by respective virtual boards 135, 137,and 139.

The unused spaces in a client display may be adapted according todifferent client devices and/or display types. FIG. 1F shows anexemplary client display 100 comprising a soft keyboard input 114. Whenthe input 114 is active, a portion 140 of the client display 100 isunused, which is represented by the virtual board 141.

Unused space may be identified when content is not rendered in theclient display 100 (e.g., no primary content 120 has been requestedprimary content cannot be loaded or is invalid, etc.). As shown in FIG.1G, the client application display area 112 may, therefore, beidentified as unused space 142 and represented as a virtual board 143.Alternatively, or in addition, the client display area 100 may beidentified as unused space 144 with a corresponding virtual board 145,as illustrated in FIG. 1H.

Referring to FIG. 1I, unused space may be identified in response to userinteraction with interface elements on the client display 100. Forexample, the client application 110 may comprise a browser havingmultiple “tabs” 150 and 155. Each tab may display rendered contentand/or may comprise respective unused space. When a first tab 150 isselected (e.g., in focus), the first tab displays primary content 120,having unused space 152. The identified unused space 152 is representedby the virtual board 153. When the second tab 155 is selected (in focus)as shown in FIG. 1J, different primary content 122 is presented in theclient application 110. The second tab 155 includes a different portionof unused space 156, corresponding to a different virtual board 157.

The unused space on the client display 100 may be identified (andcorresponding virtual boards constructed) whenever the client display100, client application 110, and/or primary content 120/122 aremodified. As shown in FIG. 1K, a user may drag the client application110 window toward an edge of the client display 100, such that a portionof the client application display area 112 is cut off. In response tothis modification, the unused space 166 and corresponding virtual board167 are updated (shifted and reduced in size). In the FIG. 1L example, auser resizes the client application display area 112, resulting inupdates to the unused space 166 and corresponding virtual board 167.Similar updates may occur in response to dynamic changes in the primarycontent 120 and/or 122. For example, the primary content 120 and/or 122may be dynamically updated (re-rendered), resulting in updates to theidentified unused space and/or corresponding virtual boards.

In some embodiments, a virtual board may be created to represent unusedspace that is not visible on the client display 100. As shown in FIG.1M, unused space 172 is not visible until a user “scrolls” the page. Asdiscussed below, however, the unused space may be identified by“pre-rendering” the primary content before it is rendered on the clientdisplay 100 (or creating a “virtual copy” of the primary content 120 inmemory). The unused space 172 is identified in the virtual copy, and acorresponding virtual board 173 is created. When the virtual board 173becomes visible (e.g., when the user scrolls the page), secondarycontent may be displayed thereon.

In some embodiments, unused space and/or corresponding virtual boardsmay be associated with one or more conditions. A virtual board may notbe used to display secondary content until the one or more conditionsare satisfied. Referring to FIG. 1N, a virtual board 175 may be used todisplay secondary content. Another virtual board 177 may not be used todisplay secondary content until a condition is met. The condition mayrequire that a user interact with secondary content of the virtual board175. When the condition is satisfied, the secondary content is renderedon the virtual board 177.

In another example, user interaction (or other conditions) may causechanges to a virtual board and/or the secondary content renderedthereon. For example, when a user interacts with secondary contentrendered on the virtual board 177, the virtual board 177 may expand asdepicted in FIG. 1O.

The virtual boards created in the unused space may be leveraged toinclude secondary content on the client display 100. The secondarycontent may include, but is not limited to, renderable content (e.g.,HTML, XML, VRML, etc.), image assets, video, text, and the like.

In some embodiments, unused space is identified at the client deviceusing executable code transmitted to the device by a network-accessibleservice (e.g., web server), such as a content distribution service(CDS). The unused space may be identified based upon various factorsincluding, but not limited to, the resolution of the client display;display of other user interface elements; the focus of user interfaceelements on the client display (e.g., identifying foregroundapplications, selected tabs, etc.); the position, size, and/ororientation of the client application window; the configuration of theprimary content (e.g., layout, orientation, alignment, etc.); renderingthe primary content; pre-rendering of primary content; and so on. Forexample, unused space may be identified by creating a “virtual” copy ofthe primary content (e.g., by rendering the primary content on a“virtual page”) and determining the coordinates of each formatting tagin the primary content to create a virtual layout of the primary contentin memory without actually rendering the content on the client display100. The coordinates and/or extent of unused space may be determined byanalyzing the rendered virtual page.

In some embodiments, the primary content 120/122 includes a “tag” (orother identifier) that references code configured to identify unusedspace in the rendered primary content 120/122 and to create virtualboards representing the unused space. Secondary content may be displayedin the unused space. The secondary content may be selected and/oradapted according to the configuration of the virtual boards (e.g., thesecondary content may be sized according to the available unused spaceas represented by the virtual boards).

FIG. 2A is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method 200 forleveraging unused space. The method 200 starts and is initialized atstep 210. The method 200 may operate on a client device having adisplay. As such, step 210 may comprise loading computer-readableinstructions from a non-transitory storage medium and initializinghardware components of the client device, such as a display device,communication interfaces, and the like.

At step 220, the method 200 receives content to be rendered for displayon the client device (e.g., primary content). The content may bereceived from a network-accessible service via a network communicationinterface (e.g., a web server).

Unused space is identified at step 230. The unused space may beidentified in response to a tag or other identifier embedded within thecontent received at step 220. The tag may reference machine-executablecode configured to cause the client device to identify unused space asdescribed herein. Alternatively, or in addition, the client deviceand/or client application rendering the content may includemachine-executable instructions for identifying unused space.

Identifying unused space at step 230 may include, but is not limited to,determining the resolution of the client display; determining theposition, size, and/or orientation of other elements on the clientdisplay (e.g., other application windows); determining the focus of theuser interface elements (e.g., identifying foreground applications,selected tabs, etc.); determining the position, size, and/or orientationof the client application window in which the primary content is to bedisplayed; determining the configuration of the primary content (e.g.,layout, orientation, alignment, etc.); rendering the primary content;pre-rendering the primary content; and so on. In some embodiments, step230 comprises rendering or pre-rendering the primary content to identifyunused space. In some embodiments, the pre-rendering is implemented on a“virtual display” that represents the client application (e.g., avirtual HTML rendering engine). The primary content is rendered on thevirtual display, which is then used to identify unused space thereon. Insome embodiments, step 230 comprises determining the page width and/oralignment using, inter alia, JavaScript® or the like. Alternatively, orin addition, content width and/or alignment may be specified in a tagrecord and/or a registered content identifier (discussed below).

Step 230 may comprise filtering the identified unused spaces by one ormore filtering criteria. The filtering criteria may include minimum sizeconstraints to ignore unused spaces that fail to conform to height,width, and/or size requirements. The filtering criteria may furthercomprise determining whether the unused portion is visible (e.g.,whether the unused portion falls outside of a viewable area of adisplay, is overlaid by another user interface element, is out of focus,etc.). The filtering criteria may specify a maximum threshold thatlimits the number of identified unused spaces. The maximum threshold mayprevent the client display from becoming excessively cluttered withsecondary content. When more than a maximum threshold of unused spacesis identified, the “best” spaces may be selected. The selection may bebased upon one or more selection criteria related to size, position(e.g., near the center of a viewable area of the client display),orientation, user preferences, or other criteria.

Step 230 may further comprise creating virtual boards to represent theunused spaces. The virtual boards may define a position, size,proportion, width, and/or height of the unused space.

At step 250, secondary content is selected for display in one or more ofthe virtual boards. The secondary content may be selected and/or adaptedto conform to the size and/or position of the virtual boards. In someembodiments, the secondary content comprises “Liquid Content” configuredto adapt to dynamically sized display areas. The flow ends at step 260.

FIG. 2B is a flow diagram of another embodiment of a method 201 forleveraging unused space to display secondary content on a clientdisplay. At steps 210, 220, 230, and 250 the method 201 starts and isinitialized, receives primary content, identifies unused space (andcreates corresponding virtual boards), and displays secondary content inthe identified virtual boards, as described above.

At step 265, the method 201 identifies a change in the client display.The change may be any change affecting the viewable area of the clientdisplay, the client application (e.g., navigating to a different primarycontent page), or the like, including user interaction with primary orsecondary content presented on the client display (e.g., selecting alink, positioning a cursor over an interaction area, etc.). Accordingly,the change identified at step 265 may include, but is not limited to,scrolling, changing a resolution of the client display, resizing theclient application display area (e.g., window), moving the clientapplication display area, changing the focus of user interface elements(taking elements into and/or out of focus), a change in the rendering ofprimary or secondary content, user interaction with user interfaceelements (e.g., selecting a link of the primary or secondary content),or the like.

If no change is detected, the flow continues to step 265; otherwise, theflow continues to step 230, where the unused space of the client displayis identified in response to the change, and the flow continues asdescribed above.

In some embodiments, unused space is identified using an applicationoperating on a client device (manager tag application). The manager tagapplication may be implemented using any suitable scripting or executionenvironment including, but not limited to, JavaScript®, Adobe Flash®,ActionScript®, Java®, or the like. The manager tag application may beadapted according to preferences of the publisher of the primarycontent. The preferences may be used to determine the type of secondarycontent to display in the unused space, minimum resolution/aspect ratiosof the secondary content, and so on.

In some embodiments, content distribution service provides the managertag application to client devices. The content distribution server maycustomize the manager tag application according to the preferences ofthe publisher, which may comprise injecting one or more preferences intothe manager tag application that is transferred to a client device. Themanager tag application may be executable (or interpretable) on theclient device to identify unused space on the client display, selectand/or create virtual boards representing the unused space according tothe preferences therein, and request secondary content for display inthe virtual boards.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of another embodiment of a method 300 forleveraging unused space to display secondary content. At steps 310 and320, the method 300 starts and is initialized and receives primarycontent, as described above.

At step 335, a manager tag application is requested. In someembodiments, the request is transmitted in response to a “manager tag”included in the primary content. As discussed below, the manager tag maycomprise JavaScript® (or other suitable code) configured to cause aclient device to request the manager tag application from a contentdistribution service. The request of step 335 may identify the primarycontent and/or include an identifier of the publisher of the primarycontent of step 320 (e.g., an account identifier).

At step 345, a manager tag application is received. The manager tagapplication comprises executable (or interpretable) instructionsconfigured to cause the client device to identify unused space on theclient display and create virtual boards representing the unused spacesin accordance with preferences of the primary content publisher.

At step 355, the manager tag application provides for displayingsecondary content on one or more of the virtual boards identified atstep 345. Step 355 may comprise the client device requesting secondarycontent from the content distribution service (or other contentprovider), selected in accordance with the preferences of the publisherof the primary content. In some embodiments, the manager tag applicationis configured to display the secondary content. Alternatively, or inaddition, secondary content may be displayed by another application (orin response to receiving the secondary content) provided by the contentdistribution service or another content provider.

The size and/or layout of the secondary content displayed at step 355may be configured according to the virtual boards identified at step345. In some embodiments, the secondary content comprises “LiquidContent” that is dynamically adaptable to differently sized and/orproportioned placeholders.

At step 355, the method receives the secondary content selected by thenetwork-accessible service and displays the secondary content on theclient display in the one or more virtual boards. The secondary contentmay be displayed with the primary content received at step 320.

At step 360, the method 300 ends until new primary content is received,at which point the flow continues to step 320. In some embodiments, step360 comprises identifying a change in the client display, as describedabove. The change may be detected by the manager tag applicationrequested at step 335. In response to a change, the manager tagapplication may identify unused space and display secondary contenttherein, as discussed above.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a system 400 for leveraging unused space todisplay secondary content. The system 400 includes a network-accessiblecontent distribution system (CDS) 410 that comprises a computing device412 (e.g., web server). The computing device 412 includes a processor414, memory 416, and a communication interface 418 to communicativelycouple the computing device to a network 402 (e.g., the Internet).

Organizations, such as content publishers 450, advertisers 452, andagencies 454, may register an account with the CDS 410. Publishers 450may use the CDS 410 to include secondary content in primary content 451provided to client devices 440 over the network 402. The primary content451 may comprise web pages or other suitable types of content (e.g.,video, audio, etc.). The publishers 450 may be compensated fordisplaying secondary content with the primary content 451 publishedthereby.

Advertisers 452 and/or agencies 454 may provide secondary content(advertising content) to be displayed within the unused space of clientdisplay 442 in conjunction with the primary content 451 of theregistered publishers 450. The advertisers 452 and/or agencies 454 maycompensate the publishers 450 (or CDS 410) for this service.

The CDS 410 maintains an account record 422 for each registeredorganization 450, 452, and/or 454 in a database 420 (or other suitabledata storage mechanism). Each account record 422 is assigned arespective identifier. The database 420 may comprise a non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium, such as a hard disk, an opticalstorage medium, non-volatile memory, or the like.

The CDS 410 provides one or more online interfaces for organizations toregister, create, and/or manage account records 422, which may provideselection options for account type (e.g., publisher, advertiser, agency,and so on). The account type may activate different interface features;for example, the interfaces displayed to a publisher 450 may provide formanagement of a content distribution process, provide reports oncontent/ads distributed by different advertisers 452 or agencies 454,and the like. Advertiser and/or agency accounts may access interfacesproviding management for features related to content/advertisingmanagement, reports on content/ads distributed with the primary content451 provided to and/or viewed by users of the client devices 440, and soon.

An account record 422 may be associated with a “tag record” 426comprising one or more registered content identifiers 427. As usedherein, a content identifier identifies one or more primary contentitems (e.g., primary content 451) published by a publisher 450. Aregistered content identifier 427 may identify a particular webpage, aset of web pages (e.g., a directory), a domain, or the like. Aregistered content identifier 427 may comprise a URL and/or a qualifiedURL (e.g., a URL comprising a wildcard character, or other qualifier).Accordingly, in some embodiments, a single account record 422 may beused to manage more than one domain, publication, or other content.

The CDS 410 may further provide for creation of one or more user-levelaccounts for different individuals within the same organization 450,452, and/or 454. Each user level account may be assigned a respectiveunique identifier, and may comprise a username and password (or othercredentials). User account records 424 may be maintained in the database420. User records 424 may be assigned different access levels or rolesby a system administrator, which determines the operations (if any) theuser is allowed to perform through the CDS 410. For example, “systemadministrator” user records 424 may represent users that are responsiblefor managing content and its distribution, and other roles may beassigned to user records 424 having other responsibilities (e.g.,billing and/or reporting).

The account record of a publisher 450 may comprise and/or reference oneor more tag records 426, which are configured to store contentdistribution parameters for one or more registered content identifiers(e.g., URLs) 427. The CDS 410 comprises a server-side application module430 to manage tag records 426. The tag records 426 may be implementedusing any suitable data storage mechanism, including, but not limitedto, Transact SQL language and Microsoft SQL server, Oracle, MySQL, adirectory, or the like.

Each tag record 426 may be associated with an account record 424 of apublisher 450 and may comprise one or more registered contentidentifiers 427. Publishers 450 may set parameters of the tag records426 (and individual registered content identifiers 427) using aconfiguration interface provided by the CDS 410. Publishers 450 mayregister content identifiers (e.g., URLs) 427 under the tag record 426.As discussed above, each registered content identifier 427 maycorrespond to one or more content items published by the publisher 450(e.g., webpage, set of web pages, domain, or the like). The publisher450 may maintain parameters for each registered content identifier 427.

The parameters of a registered content identifier 427 may includedemographic parameters describing the audience of a registered contentidentifier (e.g., the demographic parameters of the users to which aparticular web page, or website, is directed). Examples of demographicparameters include, but are not limited to, gender, age, race, maritalstatus, income level, geographic region, political affiliation, and soon.

The parameters of a registered content identifier 427 may furthercomprise content rendering parameters that specify how to leverageunused space on the client display 442. Content rendering parameters mayspecify content delivery conditions, such as page alignment and width,placeholder minimum square pixels, minimum width and heightrequirements, number of secondary content items to be delivered insidean unused space placeholder and their positioning, border margins and/orlayout of the placeholders (e.g., virtual boards), and so on. Thedemographic and/or content rendering parameters may be set for eachregistered content identifier 427 in a tag record 426.

Other parameters may include conditional parameters for renderingsecondary content when certain conditions are satisfied (e.g., minimumsize, proportions, etc.). In some embodiments, a conditional parametermay pertain to user interaction with the primary content 451 and/or thesecondary content of the placement 464. The interaction may includeselecting a link, positioning a mouse cursor, or the like.

FIG. 5 depicts one example of an interface 500 configured to provide formanaging demographic and/or content rendering parameters of a registeredcontent identifier. The interface 500 may be published by the CDS 410over the network 402. The interface 500 includes a display area 501comprising a “tags” tab 502 for demographic and/or content renderingparameters for specified content. A link 503 provides access to the“website/section” portion of the interface 500. The interface 500includes a website/section URL input 505, which identifies the contentidentifier to which the demographic parameters 510 and/or contentrendering parameters 520 pertain. The identifier of input 505 may be theURL of a particular web page, a group of web pages (e.g., all content ata particular domain, or under a particular directory), a domain, aqualified domain, a sub-domain, or the like.

The demographic parameters input 510 receives parameters defining thedemographics of the users to which the content is directed. Thedemographic parameters may be used to select suitable secondary contentfor display along with the primary content identified via the input 505.The content rendering parameters input 520 receives parameters defininghow secondary content is to be displayed with the content identified inthe input 505. Parameters input via the interface 500 may be stored in atag record 426 in association with the registered content identifier ofthe input 505.

Referring back to FIG. 4, the CDS 410 may generate a “manager tag” foreach publisher 450. The manager tag may be stored in an account record422 and/or tag record 426 of the publisher 450. As used herein, amanager tag refers to a client-executable script that includes anaccount identifier of the publisher 450. A publisher 450 may maintain asingle manager tag for each of a plurality of different domains and/orcontent pages (e.g., web pages); therefore, the manager tag may be usedto reference a tag record 426, which, as discussed above, may comprise aplurality of different registered content identifiers 427, each having arespective set of demographic and/or content rendering parameters. Useof a single, common manager tag provides for a high level of automation.

A publisher 450 may access the manager tag assigned thereto through auser interface provided by the CDS 410. FIG. 6 depicts one example of aninterface 600 for accessing a manager tag. The interface 600 may beprovided by the CDS 410 over the network 402. The interface 600 includesa display area 601 comprising a tab 602 for managing publisher managertags 620. A link 604 provides access to the “manager tag” 620 of thepublisher. The manager tag 620 may be copied using a conventional copyand paste operation. Alternatively, the interface 600 may includecontrols to provide access to the manager tag 620 in other ways (e.g.,by e-mail, FTP, WebDAV, etc.). The manager tag 620 may include anaccount identifier that is encrypted or obfuscated to prevent misusethereof. In the FIG. 6 example, “F731-D8CC-87E7-B615” represents anencrypted integer corresponding to a publisher account identifier.

The manager tag 620 may include a reference to machine-executable codeconfigured to leverage unused space on a client display. In the FIG. 6example, the manager tag references JavaScript® code accessible at aspecified URL. The disclosure is not limited in this regard, however,and could be adapted to use any suitable scripting and/or plug-inmechanism.

Referring back to FIG. 4, the publisher 450 includes the manager tag 453in primary content 451 published via the network 402. For example, themanager tag 453 may be included in a “head” portion of an HTML document:

<head> <title>Document Title</title> <script language=“javascript”type=“text/javascript”  src=“http://leftsnrights.net/?id=F731-D8CC-87E7-B615”></script></head>

The manager tag 453 may be processed as the client device 440 receivesand/or renders the primary content 451. In some embodiments, the managertag 453 is processed independently of the primary content 451 and, assuch, may be included anywhere in the primary content 451. The publisher450 may include the manager tag 453 using a server-side include, aserver-side application, or the like.

In some embodiments, the publisher 450 configures the manager tag 453 tobe dynamically processed before, during, or after the primary content451 is rendered. The dynamic processing may occur in response to eventson the client device 440, which may include, but are not limited to,changes to the position, size, and/or orientation of a clientapplication (e.g., web browser application), programmatic events, userinteraction with the primary content 451 or a placement 464 comprisingsecondary content (described below), and so on. Dynamic processing ofthe manager tag 453 may be implemented by triggering the manager tag 453based upon content delivered by a third-party content provider, such asan advertising delivery system; content delivered inside a frame or aniframe, using Ajax, or the like; or content delivered within an appletsuch as Java® or Flash®. The following is an example of JavaScript® codeconfigured to dynamically render the manager tag 453:

function render_manager_tag( ) {  varLnR_script=document.createElement(‘script’) ;  varLnr_script_src=’http://leftsnrights.net/?id=F731-D8CC-87E7-  B615’; LnR_script.setAttribute(“type”,“text/javascript”) ; LnR_script.setAttribute(“src”, Lnr_script_src);  var headTag =document.documentElementsByTagName(“HEAD”)[0]; headTag.appendChild(LnR_script); }

In some embodiments, processing the manager tag 453 comprises the clientdevice 440 issuing a request 455 to the CDS 410 for a JavaScript®application in accordance with the “src” parameter of the manager tag453. A tag management module 432 operating on the computing device 412receives the request 455 and returns a manager tag application 457 inresponse. The manager tag application 457 identifies unused space on theclient display 442, creates virtual boards 444 representing the unusedspace, and provides for rendering a placement 464 comprising secondarycontent in one or more of the virtual boards 444. The secondary contentof the placement 464 may be provided by the CDS 410, an advertiser 452,an agency 454, or other source.

In some embodiments, the tag management module 432 uses an accountidentifier (or other identifier) of the request 455 to access an accountrecord 422 and/or tag record 426 of the publisher 450. For example, therequest 455 may comprise an account identifier of the publisher 450(e.g., an encrypted or obfuscated account identifier integer, such as“F731-D8CC-87E7-B615”). The tag management module 432 uses a referralURL of the request 455 (or another, suitable identifier) to access acorresponding tag record 426 and/or registered content identifier 427.The tag management module 432 customizes the manager tag application 457using the demographic and/or content rendering preferences of theregistered content identifier 427. The customization may compriseinjecting one or more of the parameters into the manager tag application457.

In some embodiments, the tag management module 432 determines whether areferral URL of the request 455 (e.g., the referral URL of the primarycontent 451) has been registered by the publisher 450. If the referralURL of the request 455 is not registered (e.g., there is no registeredcontent identifier 427 matching the referral URL), the tag managementmodule 432 may ignore the request 455 and no manager tag application 457is returned. This may prevent unauthorized persons from including aplacement 464 in the content of the publisher 450. The tag managementmodule 432 may perform a hierarchical search within the registeredcontent identifiers 427. If no exact match is found, the tag managementmodule 432 may reference a separate “offline” datastructure 428comprising “unverified” content identifiers (URLs). If the referral URLis marked as “bad” in the datastructure 428 (by the publisher 450 oruser 424 thereof), the tag management module 432 ignores the request 455and no manager tag application 457 is returned. If the referral URL isincluded in a list of URLs that are marked as “approved” by thepublisher 450 (or authorized user 424 thereof), a manager tagapplication 457 is returned. The demographic and/or content renderingparameters of the manager tag application 457 may be selected from the“closest” matching registered content identifier 427. If the referralURL does not exist in the datastructure 428, the URL may be included ina list of “unverified” URLs, which may be approved by the publisher 450(or user 424 thereof). Accordingly, the tag management module 432prevents distribution of the manager tag application 457 to primarycontent 451 not associated with a registered and/or approved contentidentifier, while allowing for efficient updates to the list of approvedreferral URLs by the publisher 450. Moreover, since the publisher 450manages the URLs using a single manager tag, with customization and/orconfiguration managed by the CDS 410, the publisher 450 does not have toconstantly update its primary content 451 and/or the manager tag 453included in the primary content 451 (e.g., each web page of thepublisher 450 may include the same manager tag 453, while havingseparate demographic and/or content rendering parameters).

As described above, the tag management module 432 may customize themanager tag application 457 according to the preferences of a registeredcontent identifier 427. The customization may comprise injecting one ormore parameters into the manager tag application 457 (e.g., atpre-determined locations within an application template). The parametersmay include demographic parameters, content rendering parameters,conditional parameters, or the like. The exemplary manager tagapplication 457 may include comments and placeholders injected by a tagmanagement module 432 (or other suitable server-side process).

The client device 440 processes the manager tag application 457, whichidentifies unused space on the client display 442, creates virtualboards 444 representing the unused space, and provides for displayingsecondary content (e.g., placements 464) on one or more of the virtualboards 444.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method 700 forleveraging unused space on a client display. At step 710, the method 700starts and is initialized as described above.

At step 720, a request for a manager application and/or secondarycontent is received. The request may be received in response to a clientdevice processing a manager tag, as described above. The request mayinclude an account identifier and/or a referral URL (or other contentidentifiers).

At step 730, a tag record of the publisher of the primary content isaccessed. The publisher may be identified using an account identifier(or other identifier) included with the request of step 720 (e.g., anencrypted or obfuscated account identifier). The tag record may beaccessed in a database, directory, or other persistent storage mechanismusing the referral URL.

At step 740, the method 700 determines a referral URL of the request,and determines whether the referral URL has been registered in the tagrecord of step 730. As discussed above, a tag record of a publisher maycomprise one or more registered content identifiers (website/sectionURLs), each of which is associated with respective parameters, such asdemographic parameters, content rendering parameters, and so on. Thereferral URL may be the referral URL of the primary content page fromwhich the request of step 720 originated.

If the referral URL is not registered, the request may be ignored andthe flow ends at step 745; otherwise, the flow continues to step 750.Alternatively, in some embodiments, if the referral URL is notregistered (has no exact match in the registered content identifiers),the method 700 queries an offline datastructure comprising “unverified”referral URLs. The publisher may “verify” the referral URL by includingit in the offline set. If the referral URL is found in the offline setof “unverified” URLs, the referral URL is marked as “verified,” and theflow continues to step 750. If the URL is not in the offlinedatastructure and/or the URL has been marked as “bad,” the flowcontinues to step 745. The referral URL verification of step 750 mayprevent distribution of secondary content to URLs that have not beenregistered and/or unauthorized registration of URLs, while using asingle manager tag to distribute content to a plurality of different,referral URLs, each having different respective parameters (as opposedto inserting different manager tags into each different referral URL).Moreover, the use of a single manager tag allows server-side updates tooccur without modification to the primary content.

At step 750, the method 700 provides a manager tag application to theclient device in response to the request of step 720. Step 750 maycomprise customizing the manager tag application using the tag record(and information pertaining to the registered URL). As discussed above,a registered URL may be associated with parameters, including, but notlimited to, demographical parameters, content rendering parameters,conditional parameters, and the like. One or more of these parametersmay be injected into the manager tag application at step 750. Themanager tag application may be configured to cause a client device toidentify unused space on a client display, create one or more virtualboards 444 representing the unused space, and display secondary contenton the one or more virtual boards 444, as described above.

Referring back to FIG. 4, the CDS 410, or other distribution service,may comprise a placement database 460 comprising one or more placementrecords 462. As used herein, a placement record refers to a data recordfor presenting secondary content. A placement record 462 may compriseone or more conditions, such as size, scale, and/or proportionconstraints. These conditions may determine whether a particularplacement may be presented on a particular virtual board 444 (e.g.,whether the virtual board 444 has an acceptable size, scale, etc.). Aplacement record 462 may also identify and/or reference one or moresecondary content items for display on the placement. The secondarycontent items may include, but are not limited to, images, text, video,audio, interactive content (e.g., Flash®, Java®, ActionScript®, etc.),dynamic content (e.g., HTML5), or the like.

The placement record 462 may include formatting directives (e.g., HTML)to render the secondary content items of the placement. In someembodiments, a placement record comprises independent HTML code (e.g.,in a <div> layer) that may be embedded and rendered within a virtualboard 444. A placement record 462 may be associated with metadata(parameters), such as targeted demographics (e.g., age, gender,keywords, etc.), rendering conditions, target URLs, and so on.

A placement record 462 may include information and/or instructions forrendering secondary content in a virtual board 444. For example, theplacement record may comprise HTML code to embed streaming videocontent, an image file, or the like. The instructions and/or renderingcode may include HTML that may be dynamically rendered by JavaScript®and include additional JavaScript® or similar language code to provideinteractive capabilities and features. For example, the placement may berendered for a pre-defined period of time and then trigger delivery ofanother piece of secondary content (or content sequences) in the same ordifferent virtual board 444.

Publishers 452 and/or agencies 454 may manage placement records 462using one or more interfaces provided by the CDS 410. FIG. 8 depicts anexemplary interface 800 for managing a placement record. The interface800 includes a display area 801 and a “broadcast” tab 802 for managingplacement records and/or associated secondary content. The link 803accesses interface elements for creating a placement.

A name or identifier of the placement is entered via an input 805. Theplacement in the FIG. 8 example is identified as “Content #1.” An inputarea 810 is configured to receive target demographics of the placement.In some embodiments, the target demographics of a placement record arecompared to demographics of a registered content identifier (e.g.,registered URL) to select placements for display. The targetdemographics may include, but are not limited to, gender, age, race,marital status, income, geographical location, interest areas, politicalaffiliation (e.g., conservative, liberal, etc.), and so on. In someembodiments, a set of target demographics may be imported from a“channel,” which is a common set of target demographics shared by one ormore placements.

The interface 800 may further include a timeframe input 820 to specify astarting and/or ending time for the placement. The placement may not beselected for display before the starting time and/or after an endingtime of the timeframe input 820.

The interface 800 further includes an input 830 for rendering of theplacement. The rendering conditions may include, but are not limited to,size of the virtual board (in overall area), minimum width, maximumwidth, minimum height, maximum height, proportions, and so on. A usermay specify a reach and/or frequency of the placement. As used herein,the reach is the number or percentage of different users (e.g., clientdevices 440) exposed at least once to the placement over the timeframe820. Reach may refer to the number of unique exposures of the placement,excluding duplication. As used herein, the frequency of a placementrefers to the number of times that the average client device is exposedto the placement in the timeframe 820.

In some embodiments, a placement is associated with additional types ofparameters (e.g., conditional parameters), defining one or moreconditions to be satisfied to render the placement. Rendering conditions830 pertain to the size and/or proportions of a virtual board. Otherconditional parameters may pertain to user interaction with primarycontent or other placements (e.g., secondary content). For example, asshown in FIG. 1N, a virtual board 177 may be created and/or rendered, inresponse to user interaction at the client display. These types ofconditional parameters may be included via the interface 800 and/or maybe defined in content rendering code.

In some embodiments, a placement may be “assigned” to one or morereferral URLs via an input 840. The placement may be displayed inconjunction with primary content to which it is assigned. Alternatively,or in addition, the placement may be automatically selected according tothe target demographics, timeframe, and/or rendering conditions.

A placement may be displayed (e.g., rendered) in a virtual board 444. Assuch, a placement may be associated with one or more content itemsand/or rendering instructions, such as HTML. FIG. 9 depicts an exemplaryinterface 900 for managing secondary content of a placement. Theinterface 900 is displayed on a broadcast tab 902 of a display area 901in response to selecting an “upload content” link 903. The input 905 isused to specify the name of the placement to which the uploaded contentpertains (e.g., “Content #1” per the FIG. 8 example). In someembodiments, the input 905 includes a browser and/or includes a searchinterface to find placements of the user. The input 910 allows secondarycontent items to be uploaded and associated with the specifiedplacement. Alternatively, or in addition, the secondary content may bespecified in HTML code and/or may reference secondary content itemshosted on another, third-party content distribution service (e.g.,website). When the “Content #1” placement is selected, the uploadedcontent of input 910 and/or the HTML of the input 920 is rendered on avirtual board 444 on a client display.

Referring back to FIG. 4, as discussed above, the manager tagapplication 457 is configured to identify unused space on the clientdisplay 442 and to create corresponding virtual boards 444. Uponcreating a virtual board 444, the manager tag application 457 transmitsa request 459 for a placement to display therein. In some embodiments,the request 459 specifies the height, width, and/or position of thevirtual board 444. The request 459 may further include one or more ofthe parameters of the registered content identifier 427 (e.g.,demographic parameters, content rendering parameters, and/or conditionalparameters).

In some embodiments, creating the virtual board 444 comprises injectinga “content tag” (e.g., HTML <script> tag) inside of the virtual board444 (e.g., into the code defining the virtual board 444). The contenttag may include one or more parameters pertaining to the client device440, such as a browser identifier (or other application identifier),time zone, version, network address, and so on. The content tag mayfurther include a placement identifier 461 of the client device 440(discussed below). The parameters of the content tag may be used toselect a placement (or other secondary content) for display in thevirtual board 444. The following is an exemplary JavaScript® todynamically inject a content tag into a virtual board:

var LnR_script=document.createElement(‘script’);LnR_script.setAttribute(“type”,“text/javascript”);LnR_script.setAttribute(“src”,“http://leftsnrights.net/content/?”+   top.LnR_q+“&ps=”+top.LnR_v[i].ps+“&i=”+i+   “&w=”+w+“&h=”+h+&ex=“+rendered_content_list+”   &placement_id=”+Placement_ID+list_of_parameters);document.getElementById(“LnR_VirtualBoard”+i).-   appendChild(LnR_script);

A placement module 434 operating on the computing device 412 receivesthe request 459 and selects secondary content (a placement) for displayon the virtual board 444. The selection may comprise the placementmodule 434 selecting a placement record 462 from the placement database460. The selection may be based on comparing parameters of the request459 (e.g., virtual board configuration, demographic parameters, contentrendering parameters, conditional parameters, etc.) to parameters ofplacement records 462 in the placement database 460. Alternatively, orin addition, the selection may be based upon referral URL assignments ofthe placement records 462 (e.g., determining whether the referral URL ofthe primary content 451 is assigned to a particular placement record462). In some embodiments, placements are selected using a placementqueue, which, as discussed below, determines the ordering and/orfrequency of certain placements.

The placement module 434 selects a placement in response to the request459, and the placement content is rendered in the specified virtualboard 444 on the client display 442. The secondary content of theplacement 464 may be accessed from the CDS 410 (e.g., secondary contentuploaded to the CDS 410) add/or from one or more third-party sources,such as the publisher 450, advertiser 452, agency 454, or other suitablesource.

In some embodiments, CDS 410 includes a reporting module 436 that tracksplacements provided to the client devices 440. Since the manager tagapplication 457 verifies that the placement 464 is rendered and visibleon the client display 442, the reporting module 436 may report a “viewtime” of each placement.

In some embodiments, placement records 462 are selected according to a“placement queue.” As used herein, a placement queue refers to asequence of placements for display on a client device 440. A placementqueue may be used to control the order, reach, and/or frequency of theplacements in the queue. A placement queue may be associated with a tagrecord 426 (and/or registered content identifiers 427) in the database420.

FIG. 10 depicts one example of an interface 1000 for managing aplacement queue. The interface 1000 may be provided by the CDS 410 orother content distribution system. The interface 1000 includes a displayarea 1001 having a broadcast tab 1002 and link 1003 to create aplacement queue. An input 1005 receives a name or other identifier ofthe placement queue (e.g., “Placement Queue #1”). A placement queue mayinclude target demographics 1010, which may be based upon (or override)target demographics of the placements in the queue (e.g., placementdemographics input via input 810 of FIG. 8). The interface 1020 may alsoinclude a timeframe input 1020 to specify a relevant timeframe (startand/or end time) of the placement queue.

Available placements are displayed in a list 1035 of the interface 1000.The list 1035 may include placements that are available for inclusion inthe queue (e.g., placements of the user who is creating the placementqueue). A user may specify which placements are to be included in thequeue (as well as their order) in a placement queue input 1045. Theplacement queue input 1045 includes an ordered placement listing and anoption to “loop” the placements (e.g., loop the placement queue).

Referring back to FIG. 4, like a placement record 462, a placement queue466 may be associated with a tag record 426 and/or registered contentidentifier 427. Accordingly, a user may specify which referral URLs areto show the placements of a placement queue 466.

In some embodiments, the manager tag application 457 maintains placementstate information 461 on the client device 440. The placement stateinformation 461 may include a viewer identifier (e.g., an identifier ofthe client device 440 and/or user of the client device 440) and/or aplacement identifier. In some embodiments, the placement identifier mayidentify the placement 464 that is to be displayed within the virtualboard 444. Alternatively, or in addition, the placement identifier maycomprise a listing of the placements 464 that have been displayed on theclient device 440 (if any) and/or may identify a particular placementqueue.

The placement state information 461 may be stored on the client device440 (or on another, third-party storage and/or tracking service) usingany suitable mechanism, including, but not limited to, browser cookies,cross-domain cookies, tracking cookies, a Local Shared Object (LSO)(e.g., implemented using ActionScript® or another suitable executionenvironment), an Applet property or parameter, or the like. The managertag application 457 may create and/or store placement state information(e.g., generate a new viewer identifier) if no placement stateinformation 461 is available on the client device 440.

The placement state information 461 may be used to select placements 464and/or to track which placements have been viewed.

For example, a placement queue 466 may create a placement queue 466comprising three placements (e.g., placements 1, 2, and 3). Theplacement queue may further specify that the sequence of placements isto be repeated three times for each viewer. The resulting placementqueue 466 may comprise the sequence “1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3,” causing theplacements to rotate one by one with the total frequency of three. Adifferent sequence (e.g., “1,1,2,2,3,3”) will cause each placement to berendered twice for each viewer every time each viewer visits one of theregistered content identifiers with the total frequency of two. Arepresentation of the placement queue 466 (e.g., a placement sequence asdescribed above) may be transmitted to the client device and stored inthe placement state information 461. Placement requests 457 include aplacement identifier (in placement state information 461) selected fromthe sequence. After rendering a placement 464, the manager tagapplication 457 updates the placement state information to select a“next” placement (e.g., the placement is “removed” from the list). Forexample, after displaying placement “1” for the first time, the managertag application 457 updates the placement sequence to “2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3.”Accordingly, the placement state information 461 for the next placementrequest 459 will include the placement identifier “2.”

In some embodiments, the manager tag application 457 maintains stateinformation indicating which placements have been viewed on the clientdevice 440 (e.g., and/or specifying the time the placements wereviewed). The reporting information may be transmitted and/or maintainedby a reporting module 436 operating on the CDS 410 (or another,third-party service, such as an advertiser 452 or agency 454).

If the placement state information 461 does not specify a “next”placement identifier, the placement module 434 selects a placement 464or placement queue 466 from the placement database 460 as describedabove (e.g., based upon demographic parameters, content renderingparameters, conditions, and so on). In some embodiments, the placementmodule 434 assigns a placement queue to the client device 440. Theplacement queue may include a sequence of placement identifiers to bedisplayed on the client device 440 (e.g., an ordered sequence ofplacement identifiers). The placement module 434 may return theplacement queue along with the placement 464. The manager tagapplication 457 may store the placement queue in placement stateinformation 461 of the client device 440 and may select subsequentplacement identifiers therefrom.

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method 1100 forleveraging unused space on a client display. At steps 1110-1120, themethod 1100 starts and is initialized, and primary content comprising amanager tag is received. At step 1130, and in response to processing themanager tag, the method 1100 requests a manager tag application, whichidentifies unused space on the client display.

At step 1140, the method accesses placement state information pertainingto the client device or user thereof. The placement state informationmay be stored on the client device (e.g., in a cookie, LSO, etc.) and/ormay be maintained by a third-party service. The placement stateinformation may include a viewer identifier and/or a placementidentifier. If no placement state information is available, step 1140may comprise creating and storing a new set of placement stateinformation (e.g., a new viewer identifier).

At step 1150, the method 1100 creates a virtual board representingunused space on the client display (e.g., as identified at step 1130).Creating the virtual board may comprise including HTML, or other markup,into the primary content page (e.g., as a <div> tag, frame, or thelike). Step 1150 may further comprise injecting a content tag into thevirtual board, which, as described above, may include parameterspertaining to the client device and/or the placement state informationof step 1140.

At step 1160, the method 1100 generates a request for a placement todisplay on the virtual board of step 1150. The request may include theplacement state information injected into the virtual board at step1150, such as the viewer identifier and/or placement identifier (ifany).

At step 1170, a placement for display within the virtual board isreceived. The placement may be rendered within the virtual board asdescribed above (e.g., HTML code of the placement may be included withinthe virtual board of step 1150). Step 1170 may further comprisereceiving a placement queue specifying the “next” placements to displayon the client device.

Step 1180 comprises updating the placement stage information of theclient device. Step 1180 may comprise storing a new placement queuereceived with the placement at step 1170. Alternatively, the update maycomprise indicating that the placement of step 1170 has been displayedand selecting a “next” placement in the placement queue. The updatedplacement state information may be stored on the client device or on athird-party service.

At step 1190, the flow ends until a new virtual board is created and/ornew primary content is received.

FIG. 12 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method 1200 forleveraging unused space on a client display. At step 1210, the method1200 starts and is initialized as described above. At step 1220, arequest for a placement is received.

Step 1230 comprises determining whether the request includes a validplacement identifier. Step 1230 may comprise accessing a placementidentifier (or placement queue) in the request and determining whetherthe requested placement is still “valid” (e.g., based upon one or moretimeframe, reach, and/or frequency comparisons). If the placementidentifier is valid, the flow continues to step 1250; otherwise, theflow continues to step 1240.

Step 1240 comprises selecting a new placement or placement queue asdescribed above. Step 1250 comprises providing a placement in responseto the request. Step 1250 may comprise returning HTML code and one ormore secondary content items (e.g., Adobe Flash®, etc.) to therequester.

Step 1260 comprises reporting the placement, which may include storingan indicator that the placement and/or placement queue was displayed onthe client device. The reporting may comprise receiving validation (orother indicator) that the placement was rendered on the client device.

At step 1270, the flow ends until a next placement request is received.

Referring back to FIG. 4, the CDS 410 may comprise a reporting module436 that is configured to maintain statistics pertaining to placementand/or placement queue viewing. The reporting module 436 may report a“Gross Rating Points” (GRP) for each placement record 462 (or placementqueue 466). Since each client device 440 may potentially receive adifferent placement 464 and the manager tag application 457 may verifythat the placement is viewable on the client display 442, the reportingmodule 436 may be capable of generating highly accurate reportinginformation.

Accordingly, the reporting module 436 may maintain statistics that aresimilar to a television broadcasting model (as opposed to a typicalInternet model in which placement viewability is not verifiable). Insome embodiments, the reporting module 436 updates reporting informationas placements are provided to client devices 440. Alternatively, or inaddition, the reporting module 436 may receive periodic updates fromclient devices 440 and/or receive verification from the placement 464(or a third-party service) that the placement 464 was rendered on theclient display 442.

As discussed above, the unused space (and corresponding virtual boards)may be variable in size, proportions, and/or position. These parametersmay only be known at rendering time. In some embodiments, placements 464may be configured to “adapt” to differently sized virtual boards. Theadaptations may comprise a client-side application for assemblingsecondary content based upon available space. Content configured toadapt to varying sizes and/or proportions is referred to herein as“Liquid Content.”

Liquid content may be included as secondary content and/or as placementinstructions (e.g., HTML, JavaScript®, etc.) of a placement record 462.In some embodiments, Liquid Content is implementing using Adobe Flash®ActionScript®, although other suitable mechanisms could be used,including, but not limited to, Java®, JavaScript®, Jscript®, ECMAScript,HTML5, or other scripting capable of positioning and rendering contentelements in a pre-determined way based on size, scale, or proportions ofthe virtual board.

The Liquid Content allows for any advanced creative and interactivity.The Liquid Content unit can include and assemble different types ofcontent elements, such as images, rich media, animation, videostreaming, expendable ads, database driven content and shopping cartswith secured transactions, games, and social networking interactivity.The Liquid Content unit can also include any other fixed-size and fluidcontent where the size or proportions of the screen and available emptyspace can trigger additional events. For example, if the virtual boardis smaller than a pre-determined size, smaller image files may beselected for rendering, whereas if the virtual board is larger, another,larger image file may be used. This adaptation allows for qualitycontrol of the rendered content, preventing resized images to becomepixilated or blurred.

FIGS. 13A-C depict exemplary Liquid Content rendering adjustments 1300to layout, size, scale, and proportions of graphic, images, video, andtext elements in accordance with the available space within a virtualboard 1344. The adaptations may be configured to fill up the entireavailable space (or a pre-determined portion thereof) based on specifiedinstructions in such a way that the content elements will beautomatically rendered with maximum scale possible without losing visualquality of the content or according to other instructions.

In some embodiments, a Liquid Content application prevents stretchinggraphic elements (as shown in FIG. 13B) and/or unintentional overlappingof one element by another when elements are resized and change position(as shown in FIG. 13C). Each time a user moves or resizes the browserwindow, the manager tag application (e.g., application 457) mayrecalculate the position and size of the virtual boards and adjust theirsize to fit therein (e.g., virtual boards 444 on client display 442).The changes may trigger the Liquid Content to re-render to match thedimensions of the virtual board 1344 and/or re-arrange graphics andother visual elements of the content, according to instructions.

User interactions with a client display may modify the virtual board1344 of FIG. 13A into the configurations shown in FIGS. 13B and 13C (andvice versa). As shown in FIG. 13B, an additional graphic 1310 (and/orother content elements) may be included (or removed) in response tochanges in the size and/or proportions of the virtual board 1344. In theFIG. 13C example, the text 1312 of FIG. 13A is removed due to lack ofavailable space on the virtual board 1344.

Accordingly, the Liquid Content may comprise references to one or moresecondary content items, each of which may be interchanged in responseto different configurations of the virtual board 1344. Moreover, in someembodiments, the Liquid Content may comprise multiple copies of thesecondary content at different resolutions and/or sizes. The differentcopies may be selected according to a particular layout and/orconfiguration of the Liquid Content. For example, in FIG. 13C, areduced-resolution image 1314 is used to prevent overlap with the image1316.

The above description provides numerous specific details for a thoroughunderstanding of the embodiments described herein. However, those ofskill in the art will recognize that one or more of the specific detailsmay be omitted, or other methods, components, or materials may be used.In some cases, operations are not shown or described in detail.

Furthermore, the described features, operations, or characteristics maybe combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. It willalso be readily understood that the order of the steps or actions of themethods described in connection with the embodiments disclosed may bechanged as would be apparent to those skilled in the art. Thus, anyorder in the drawings or Detailed Description is for illustrativepurposes only and is not meant to imply a required order, unlessspecified to require an order.

Embodiments may include various steps, which may be embodied inmachine-executable instructions to be executed by a general-purpose orspecial-purpose computer (or other electronic device). Alternatively,the steps may be performed by hardware components that include specificlogic for performing the steps, or by a combination of hardware,software, and/or firmware.

Embodiments may also be provided as a computer program product includinga computer-readable storage medium having stored instructions thereonthat may be used to program a computer (or other electronic device) toperform processes described herein. The computer-readable storage mediummay include, but is not limited to, hard drives, floppy diskettes,optical disks, CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magneticor optical cards, solid-state memory devices, or other types ofmedium/computer-readable medium suitable for storing electronicinstructions.

As used herein, a software module or component may include any type ofcomputer instruction or computer executable code located within a memorydevice and/or computer-readable storage medium. A software module may,for instance, comprise one or more physical or logical blocks ofcomputer instructions, which may be organized as a routine, program,object, component, data structure, etc., that perform one or more tasksor implements particular abstract data types.

In certain embodiments, a particular software module may comprisedisparate instructions stored in different locations of a memory device,which together implement the described functionality of the module.Indeed, a module may comprise a single instruction or many instructions,and may be distributed over several different code segments, amongdifferent programs, and across several memory devices. Some embodimentsmay be practiced in a distributed computing environment where tasks areperformed by a remote processing device linked through a communicationsnetwork. In a distributed computing environment, software modules may belocated in local and/or remote memory storage devices. In addition, databeing tied or rendered together in a database record may be resident inthe same memory device, or across several memory devices, and may belinked together in fields of a record in a database across a network.

It will be understood by those having skill in the art that many changesmay be made to the details of the above-described embodiments withoutdeparting from the underlying principles of the invention.

We claim:
 1. A method, comprising: providing computer-readable codeconfigured for execution by a processor of a client computing device,the computer-readable code configured to cause the client computingdevice to, identify unused space, the identified unused space to existwithin a display of the client computing device when an applicationpresents primary content within the display modify markup datacorresponding to the primary content at the client computing device,wherein the markup data is modified to create an element configured torepresent the identified unused space in the modified markup data, andinsert secondary markup data into the element created within themodified markup document such that the application processes themodified markup data, including the secondary markup data, to presentthe primary content and secondary content within the display.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the secondary content comprises content of athird-party advertiser.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the secondarycontent comprises fixed-size content.
 4. The method of claim 1, whereinmarkup data comprises Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) data, andwherein the secondary markup data comprises HTML data.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the secondary content comprises one or more fixed-sizeimages.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the provided computer-readablecode is configured to cause the client computing device to modify one ormore of the element created within the modified markup data and thesecondary markup data inserted into the element in response to detectinga change pertaining to the display.
 7. The method of claim 6, whereinthe change comprises one or more of scrolling within a browser windowand resizing the browser window.
 8. A non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium comprising instructions configured to cause a computingdevice to perform operations, comprising: identifying unused space toexist within a client display when an application operating on thecomputing device presents primary content on the client display, theprimary content corresponding to a markup document; modifying the markupdocument to include an element representing the identified unused space;and inserting secondary markup data within the element created withinthe modified markup document representing the identified unused space,wherein the secondary markup data is configured to be processed by theapplication such that the application presents the secondary contentwith the primary content on the client display.
 9. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the markup documentcomprises a Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) document, and wherein thesecondary markup data comprise HTML data.
 10. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the secondarymarkup data inserted within the element created within the modifiedmarkup document comprises one or more of Hyper-Text Markup Language(HTML) data, eXtensible Markup Language (XML) data, and a link.
 11. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, whereininserting the secondary markup data comprises inserting a reference to aserver of a third party.
 12. The non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium of claim 8, wherein the client display comprises anapplication window, the operations further comprising modifying theelement created within the modified markup document in response todetecting one or more of scrolling within the application window,positioning of the application window, selection of a tab of theapplication window, reorientation of the application window, andresizing the application window.
 13. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 8, the operations furthercomprising selecting secondary markup data to insert within the elementbased on a size of the identified unused space.
 14. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the application isconfigured to generate the markup document corresponding to the primarycontent in response to processing at least a portion of electronicmarkup data of the primary content, and wherein processing the portionof the electronic markup data comprises the application executing ascript to identify the unused space to and to modify the markup documentto include the element representing the unused space.
 15. A system forcontent distribution, comprising: a content distribution servercomprising a processor, memory, and a network interface tocommunicatively couple the content distribution server to an electroniccommunication network, wherein the content distribution server isconfigured to provide computer-readable code to an-application operatingon a client computing device through the electronic communicationnetwork responsive to the application processing markup data forpresentation of primary content on a display of the client computingdevice, wherein the computer-readable code is configured to cause theclient computing device to, identify empty space corresponding topresentation of the primary content on the display of the clientcomputing device, modify the primary markup data to create a placeholderelement to represent the identified empty space, and generate a requestfor advertising content to be inserted into placeholder element of themodified markup data, and wherein the content distribution server isfurther configured to select advertising content in response to therequest from the client computing device, wherein the applicationprocesses the modified markup data, including the selected advertisingcontent inserted into the placeholder element thereof, for presentationof the primary content and the selected advertising content on thedisplay of the client computing device.
 16. The system of claim 15,wherein the content distribution server is configured to selectadvertising content of a third-party advertisement content distributor.17. The system of claim 15, wherein the selected advertising contentincludes one or more images.
 18. The system of claim 15, wherein thecomputer-readable code provided by the content distribution server isconfigured to cause the computing device to modify a layout of theplaceholder element included in the modified markup data in response todetecting one or more of a resize operation and a scroll operation. 19.The system of claim 15, wherein the computer-readable code provided bythe content distribution server is configured to cause the clientcomputing device to modify a position of the placeholder element withinthe modified markup data in response to detecting one or more of aresize operation and a scroll operation.
 20. The system of claim 15,wherein the computer-readable code provided by the content distributionserver is configured to cause the client computing device to generate arequest for updated advertising content in response to detecting aresize operation.